Touchdown! NASA rover makes successful Mars landing

The largest rover ever developed by NASA has made a successful landing on Mars.

The six-wheeled Perseverance rover, weighing over a tonne and equipped with ground breaking technology, touched down just before 8am AEDT to celebrations in the space agency’s control room in California.

It marks the end of a 203 day journey for the rover which will be now tasked with collecting samples.

Touchdown confirmed. The #CountdownToMars is complete, but the mission is just beginning. pic.twitter.com/UvOyXQhhN9

— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021

Senior physics lecturer at RMIT, and former astronaut trainer, Dr Gail Iles says it’s a “great engineering achievment.”

“Approximately one in two missions fail to the red planet, so first of all missions success is a huge success,” she told Neil Mitchell on 3AW Mornings.

“We’re looking for signs for life on our closest neighbour … There’s a number of instruments on board the Perseverance Rover, they are specifically designed to look for microbial samples, to look for water that might once have borne life.

“For the first time there’s actually microphones on board, so we’re going to be lkistening to the wind on Mars, the environment and any other sounds we might pick up.”

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IMAGE: 9news